knitting librarian

AJ and Zoe spent last night at NonnaPop’s and went trick or treating in our new neighborhood. They only went to about 5 houses—we’ll be living out in the country when we move). Even so, they’ve got a huge bagful of candy loot. One thing about living in the country: you don’t get many trick or treaters. The people were so glad to have kids come by that they gave out a handful to each kiddo.

John and I went out to dinner and a movie for our anniversary. We saw W. It was really good and actually made me feel some sympathy for Dubya. My mom wanted to know if it gave me enough to change my mind about McCain—she’s such an optimist! Afterward, we went to dinner at Haywood’s. When Kim, the owner, found out we were celebrating our anniversary, he bought us a drink. We had a really nice dinner and then came home and relaxed until it was time to pick up the kids this morning.

After lunch, we went to check out furniture for the new house and I think we found a sectional sofa for the family room, a head and footboard for our bed, and possibly a bunk bed for AJ. We just have to decide if that’s really what we want for furniture in his room. They’ll give us a decent discount for purchasing the floor items and store them until we can have them delivered to the new house. We’re still going to try and get a little bit better deal by paying cash.

AJ’s been in the bad habit of getting upset when he doesn’t get his way and getting in a cycle that quickly moves to out of control. Vince has been kneeling next to him and telling him that he’s in charge of himself and he needs to get himself calmed down…that he’s in control of how he’s feeling.

Last night, I was trying to put things into the fridge from the grocery store and take things out for dinner—queen of multi-tasking here. I managed to get my Brita water pitcher on the edge of the shelf while reaching behind it and it fell out from the top shelf, down and spilled all over me, taking a 2 liter of Diet Pepsi with it. As it was falling I screamed “AHHHH!” (because I self-edit between my brain and my mouth when the kids are around.) AJ looked right at me and said “Maybe if you were in control of yourself that wouldn’t have happened.” I told him he was right I was not in control. As I was standing in 1/4 inch of water, I sent him upstairs to get towels from the bathroom. “I would love to help you, mom.” He got them, gave me one, kept another and we put them on the floor to soak up the water.

I was not thrilled that he took what he’d heard and twisted it back on me, especially since I squawked about something that was out of my control. BUT, we know he’s listening. I guess we can continue to use that strategy with him.

I love that boy!

My boss generously allowed me to come in late today for our 9th graders’ first day of school so that I could see AJ off to Kindergarten. I was really worried that I was going to be an emotional wreck, but I barely shed a few tears once he was inside the building.

We got up and got dressed, had breakfast and then I took Zoe to daycare while AJ and John finished up breakfast and went out to wait for the bus. We waited for nearly 30 minutes for the bus to arrive. It got to the stop about 25 minutes late. We took pictures of AJ and our neighbor Destin who is going into second grade this year. Apparently, like us, every parent putting their child on the bus today took pictures before and after their kids boarded, so they were running way late. After the bus rolled out, John and I drove up to a nearby parking lot and left his car there so we could go wait for the bus at the school. We waited there for another 10 or 15 minutes. I’m not even sure that AJ would have noticed us there if it weren’t for us calling his name. They were very organized, calling the kindies off the bus first and escorting them in separate from the rest of the children. He couldn’t tell me much about his day initially other than he’d had strawberry milk and chicken nuggets for lunch. The best part of his day was riding the bus. The next best part was seeing his friend Garrett from preschool during the after school care program. After some time, he did recall that they’d heard the book The Kissing Hand, gone to art class, and laid down for a rest—oh, and he also had corn and apples with cinnamon at lunch. Tonight at bedtime we kissed each other’s palms so we’ll have kisses if we need them. (Love that book!)

AJ has gotten on my next-to-last nerve today. I hope we both survive!